In vivo high-resolution volume-selected proton spectroscopy and T1 measurements in the dog brain

Successful in vivo NMR spectroscopy requires a combination of techniques to address the problems of volume selection, water suppression, and resolution. All this needs to be done in the very heterogeneous environment found in living organisms. Previously published techniques are used to obtain 1H spectra from a dog brain, observing metabolites with concentrations below 1 mM. Measurements of spin-lattice relaxation times (T1) are also presented. The 1H relaxation times are long (T1 greater than 1.0 s) yielding information about the fluidity of the molecular environment. Comments are made concerning the achievable linewidth in vivo and the deficiencies that phase-encoding spectroscopic methods may have in obtaining high-resolution 1H spectra.